Generally, legacy customer service systems rely upon a toll-free number the user dials to access a customer service agent. However, these systems are plagued with problems and inefficiencies that affect both the user and the organization providing the customer service.
Significant advances in modern technology, have failed so far to provide any relief for such problems and inefficiencies. Complex agent scheduling and call routing systems, automatic answering systems with voice recognition, and even dialog engines that try to emulate communication interactions between users and agents have not succeeded. At the same time, user complaints about customer service continue to grow.
Many of these technologies are disclosed in a broad spectrum of patents and patent applications, examples of which are:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,782 to Srinivasan discloses a system that prompts the caller to choose between holding or receiving a return call. If the caller chooses a return call, the arrangement prompts the caller for callback time and time-period. The arrangement places an outgoing call to the stored telephone number when the callback time arrives. If the call does not get through, the arrangement periodically repeats placing of the outgoing call, until the call gets through or the callback time-period expires. When it places the outgoing call, the arrangement connects the originating end thereof to an ACD agent to handle the call.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,884 to Williams also discloses a system that prompts the caller to choose between holding and receiving a return call. If the caller chooses a return call, caller information is automatically taken from the caller on hold, the call disconnected and the call returned at the time when the caller would have been serviced had the caller stayed on hold.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,760 to Vortman et al. discloses a method for generating call backs by establishing an outgoing call to an outside party expecting a call back and having a communication switch generate an incoming call responsive to the outgoing call, whereby the incoming call is treated as originated by the outside party.
US application 2001/0054064 by Kannan discloses a method to provide live customer service over the World Wide Web, whereby customers or queries sent by potential customers are intelligently routed to appropriate customer service representatives.
US application 2004/0044542 by Benniaminy discloses a dynamically updated knowledge base accessible over a network, whereby an individual can query the knowledge base to determine if the problem and its solution are found in it. If negative, the query is broadcast over the network allowing experts who listen-in the network to file-in a reply to the query and thereafter, the problem and the solution are added to the knowledge base.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,970,829 to Leamon discloses a method for planning, scheduling, and managing workforce personnel in contact centers. This prior art is based upon Erlang B and Erlang C algorithms named after the renown Danish mathematician and telephone engineer Agner Erlang who published his first paper “Theory of probability and telephone conversations” in 1909. These algorithms are applied by Leamon to the following problem: given a limited number of agents and an anticipated range of volume of inquiries how to best schedule the limited number of agents to optimize responses to the inquiries (improve the response time, reduce the number of lost inquiries, maximize the number of inquiries satisfactorily addressed, etc.). These algorithms are first run with a tentative schedule and then re-run in subsequent iterations with different parameters until a satisfactory iteration is obtained.
US application 2005/0055321 by Fraktina discloses a dialog engine, whereby the user poses a question in response to which the dialog engine engages in a dialog with the user by trying to emulate the way people interact with each other. Fratkina further discusses a logging capability that records each of the steps within a multiple-step dialog interaction with a user, as opposed to simply separate actions (clicks and queries).
US application 2003 to Mullen discloses a work management system that matches supply of agents with demand for agents by obtaining arrival statistics for tasks and resources and evaluating a composite binomial distribution of net tasks and resources in a queue to determine an expected number of enqueued tasks or resources at some future time. The work management system automatically paces outbound calls to balance supply and demand.
One of the fundamental limitations of the prior art relates to the failure to address the difficulty that a person may experience when trying to clearly express a query or inquiry because of either inadequate verbal communication skills or the non-existence of descriptive words capable of properly representing a concept formed in the person's mind.
In summary, the prior art provides a broad range of alternatives to respond to clearly expressed queries or inquiries but fails to provide a practical method to help a person express a query or inquiry in clear and definite terms. As a result, customer service is and has always been an inefficient process that creates a multitude of economic and logistic problems for many institutions, does not promote customer satisfaction, and is becoming a major impediment to improving the relationship between institutions and their customers.